#VBNSWCup Preview: Penrith Panthers vs Wentworthville Magpies
NSW CUP MATCH PREVIEW
ROUND 13 v Wentworthville Magpies @ Port Macquarie Regional Stadium, Saturday 6th June @ 6PM
Its Country Round in the VB NSW Cup as the Panthers head on their fourth road trip in succession when they look to complete a double over their nearest rivals, Wentworthville in of all places, Port Macquarie, having defeated the Magpies back in Round 9, 16-4.
The 16-4 win at Ringrose Park, was a hard fought affair as neither side attacked with any great efficiency but Penrith did just enough to get the points on the board when it mattered before relying on their defence to get the two points as the Magpies imploded in the second half with error after error.
Penrith come into this clash having won five from their last six but were lucky to escape with their latest win, a last gasp 31-24 win over lowly Manly at Brookvale Oval that required the Panthers to score nine points in the last three minutes including an amazing field goal from the unlikely Tupou Sopoaga.
The result comes on the back of a shock 26-18 loss to lowly North Sydney in what was easily their worse performance to date in 2015 but the Panthers based on their defence (conceding just 16 points per game) now lead the NSW Cup ahead of Mounties on for and against, despite averaging just under 22 points per game, 10th best in the NSW Cup.
Wentworthville, last year’s preliminary finalists, have continued to struggle in 2015 and find themselves level in last place with Manly and have the worst attacking record in the competition scoring just under 21 points per game.
The Magpies come into this game well rested having the bye last weekend, after suffering yet another loss the previous week, this time at home to the Newtown Jets, 26-12.
Penrith have given the PNG International brothers, Wellington and Stanton Albert, the opportunity to not only play together for the first time in recent memory but also in Stanton’s case make his NSW Cup debut from the bench in a reshuffled forward pack, that sees Rodney Coates start at prop and Sam Anderson reverting to lock in place of Adam Docker (NRL). Wellington Albert’s inclusion sees Andy Saunders named as 18th man for the clash.
From the last time these two teams met, Penrith are missing Paul Simona, Nu’u Akeripa, Josh Tangitau, Pat Hollis and Andy Saunders, while Kieran Moss, Isaac John, Nathan Smith, Adrian Davis and Stanton Albert are big inclusions.
Nathan Smith, is among four players from last year’s premiership winning side that contains 6 players having played 193 NRL games between them.
The full squad is as follows:
1 KIERAN MOSS 2 EDDIE AIONO 3 CHRIS SMITH 4 WILL SMITH 5 TOM EISENHUTH 6 ISAAC JOHN
7 ADRIAN DAVIS 8 RODNEY COATES 9 BRENDAN ATTWOOD 10 LEILANI LATU 11 NATHAN SMITH
12 TUPOU SOPOAGA 13 SAM ANDERSON
INTERCHANGE:
14 STANTON ALBERT 15 SAM SCARLETT 16 WELLINGTON ALBERT 17 MATT EISENHUTH
23 ANDY SAUNDERS (One to omit)
COACH GARTH BRENNAN
Wentworthville, despite their lowly position have named a strong side for the clash against the defending premiers. Nine players contain 264 games of NRL experience including former Panthers, Joseph Paulo and Jake Butler-Fleming. Plenty of talent and experience in their backline with the likes of Quinlan, Folau, Toutai, Faraimo and Kelly and it’s hard to fathom why they are coming equal last coming into this clash. Since these two last met, six changes have been made including an entirely different starting front-row.
IN: Ryan Matterson, Josh Aloiai, Joseph Paulo, Kaysa Pritchard, Moses Manu, Jake Butler-Fleming
OUT: Ben Crooks, Beau Henry, Daniel Alvaro, Zach Dockar-Clay, Pauli Pauli, Danny Howard
The full squad is as follows:
1 ADAM QUINLAN 2 FABIAN GOODALL 3 JOHN FOLAU 4 VAI TOUTAI 5 BURETA FARAIMO
6 RYAN MATTERSON 7 LUKE KELLY 8 TUI KAMIKAMICA 9 SAM GORMAN 10 TANIELA LASALO
11 CODY NELSON 12 JOSH ALOIAI 13 JOSEPH PAULO
INTERCHANGE:
14 KAYSA PRITCHARD 15 FRED PAKUTOA 16 MOSES MANU 17 JAKE BUTLER-FLEMING
18 BEAU HENRY (One to omit)
COACH BRETT COOK
Penrith have won the last four clashes between the pair but with two closer than expected games against lowly opposition last round, Coach Garth Brennan, will again need to have his team focused on playing for the entire eighty minutes and not in patches to earn the two points. He will be looking for his team to arrest an alarming trend of starting their games slowly as they took nearly 30 minutes to score against Manly last Saturday.
The danger for Penrith this week will be containing what looks a fast and powerful Magpies three-quarter backline while Eddie Aiono will be looking to add to his try tally that has netted him 8 in 7 games in NSW Cup and 9 from 4 RM Cup games.
Provided the Panthers show respect to their opposition, stick to their game plan and start the game faster in attack, their defence should allow them to win this clash by 10 points.
